Catherine I
'''Empress Catherine I of Tetermokistan '''was the ruler of Tetermokistan throughout most of the 19th century. She lead the nation through reforms and wars that would make it a world superpower. She is widely considered the best of the emperors and is fondly remembered in almost every aspect of Tetermokistani culture. Early Life Early Years Catherine was born on the 21st April 1814 to Joseph and Sophia Augustus, farmers in the remote village of Sina. Her family was actually the same one that was deposed by Arnas I a hundred years earlier. They had been exiled and not killed in an act of mercy, and continued their lives living low in the village. Her great-grandfather was the former emperor Justinian V. Spending her childhood in the village, she did not have much of a modern way of life. She displayed high intelligence despite this, and was tutored by her father's good friend Alexander Veredus, who used to be an active member in Arnas' court. It was not all studying, as Catherine also earned valuable life experiences from the landscape around her. Sina was situated in the foothills of Mount Ararat, a very important place in Christianity. She learned culture and religion from the local priests, which would be important in her later rule of a Christian country. The other villagers were surprised at her ability to draw extremely accurate maps of the area and the wider Tetermokistan, despite the fact she had never left the region. Many considered this to mean that she had been chosen by God or at least favoured by Him. Acknowledgement by Darion In 1824, Catherine won a national scientific competition to provide an accurate distance to the strange globular clusters that appeared in the sky. Despite being only ten years old, she had discovered the existence of other galaxies 150 years before the rest of the world would believe it. This caught the eye of Alexios Pargus, the Vicegerent of Emperor Darion III. He was looking for the nation's brightest people to join him in Teter and advise the emperor, who was in a tough situation. Alexios approached her and told her of the opportunity. She was just the person that he needed, and so, satisfied, he offered the position of advisor to her. Her mother Sophia was initially sceptical at this, as she thought that Darion might be trying to get rid of the former Imperial Dynasty. After some careful interrogation, she found out that Alexios did not know who Catherine's family were. Her doubts were cleared and she allowed her daughter to travel to the capital city of Teter. Upon request reaching Teter, she met with Emperor Darion and the rest of his two dozen temporary advisors. They discussed at great lengths about the empire's foreign policies, and Darion was amazed at how knowledgeable the young girl from a small village was. Her stay grew longer and longer as the court progressed, and he eventually told her of his problem with the Ottoman Empire and the extensive border with them. His main trouble was that they were advancing, and he did not have an accurate map of the region on which to plot this and take control of the situation. Catherine was surprised at how easy this was, and she quickly completed the emperor's map using her unexplained knowledge of the area. Heirdom Darion sent frequent letters to Catherine's family about how proud he was of Catherine and expressing his gratitude at them for raising her. He offered her mother a place at court, which she quickly accepted. By 1828, she was living with her family at Darion's great palace. Her intelligence and strength had struck fame across the empire, and Darion actively encouraged her to go out to the world and show off her talents. Darion started to treat her like his own daughter and the two came close, often enjoying a philosophical discussion or experiment together. By now, Darion was an aged man of 80 years, and faced a big problem. He did not have any children, as his mind was always preoccupied with war and politics and never had a wife. He knew that he did not have long left, so spent the early 1830s teaching Catherine everything he knew and had learnt in his time as emperor. She was appointed as his heir in 1832. Tragically, Darion III died on 6th January 1834 after a 66 year reign. His Imperial Funeral was held on 10th January and was attended by Catherine. She was appointed as Acting Empress for the time being, and made sure that Darion was remembered properly. Reign Catherine was crowned as Empress of Tetermokistan on 21st April 1834 in Teter. She immediately called the council to meet at the Great Hall of Darion's palace, where she explained the huge list of reforms she wished to carry out. Although they were initially skeptical, the court agreed to them one by one. In 1835, the working class were allowed to be appointed as nobles and members of the court providing they were worthy, which is something that came from Catherine's personal experience. In 1836, women were granted the rights to become nobles and hold all of the permissions and titles a man could, as well as extensive laws against abuse and sexual crimes. Tetermokistan became the talk of the world with these new and radical ideas, but the majority of the neighbouring countries did not share Catherine's views. Firstly, the Ottoman Empire acted with the agression that the younger Catherine had been expecting. In the summer of 1838, they tried to break through the border of the empire but were held off by the stronger but less numerous Tetermokistani forces at Jolopogi. Another force was sent, but it was stopped before even reaching the border as Catherine's troops were rushing south east. They took over swathes of now undefended territories, reaching right out to the Indus River. In 1844, the Russians tried to take a portion of land a hundred miles north of Teter, but were stopped by the Tetermokistani army and sent back to Moscow with less than a tenth of the original number of troops. They tried again in 1848, but failed because of the dangerous crossing of the Edicat River, where the troops were brutally forced back by the empire's army. In 1851, the Ottomans once again attempted to take Jolopogi. After a six week siege, they eventually gave up and decided to target the nation's capital instead. Defence of Teter Catherine was warned of this force sailing up the Black Sea by her many spies, which she had skillfully positioned in almost every other country. She prepared a huge defence force in secret, consisting of 80,000 soldiers and 10,000 cavalry. They waited for the Ottomans to reach land and then attacked them on the marshy shores. Surprised, the Ottoman army's structure fell apart, and the soldiers scattered into the woods in all directions. Catherine ordered that they be captured and taken back to Teter. She then personally went to the flatter lands further inland where the remaining Ottomans were, and strated fighting with her soldiers, armed with but a sword. The Ottoman invasion was defeated and Catherine returned to Teter victorious. Her council recommended that she do something to mark this glorious victory, so that the whole world may know that Tetermokistan will not fall to any country. She took this advice and did something radical that no-one expected. In 1853 she changed the name of the capital city, which had been called Teter for a thousand years since the reign of Darius I, to Patagones. This means 'Navel of the Universe' in the local language. Many referred to the city afterwards not as Patagones, but instead as the City of Catherine, Catherine's City, Catherinopoplis or Cathergones. Development of the Government In 1854, the Crimean War broke out between Russia, Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. Catherine sent a force to the battleground to support neither side, but just to establish a sense of fear in the Russian and Ottoman hearts. This worked and when Russia was forced to surrender a little later, they also agreed not to try to take an Tetermokistani lands. After it seemed like the foreign tensions had relaxed, Catherine turned her attention to the domestic side of things. The empire's economy depended on the trade of easily accessed goods like oil, cloth and food. Determined to give this ancient system a boost, Catherine pushed forward in subsidising new factories across the country to produce more mechanical items, which were becoming increasingly valuable and sort after as the Industrial Revolution drew to a close. With this massive new way of producing money, Tetermokistan became the world's leading industrial equipment dealer in 1858. The people grew richer and richer, and soon the time was right for a total reform of the ancient society that had been almost continuous since Justinian I. In 1860, Catherine ordered that the peasantry of the country's outerlying provinces must be represented in the government of the nation. She set up the Imperial Council, a group of people from every province and of every social status, that would meet every month to discuss problems they had found and then suggest ways that they could be solved to the Empress. This proved to work well, with new laws being created not just for the good of the country, but for the people to. In most other countries, the lower classes and women were not as well represented by the governing bodies, but in Tetermokistan they were entirely equal with a constant balance being maintained between the sexes and classes. The Golden Impact On her birthday of that year, she received news that a fireball had fallen from the sky near her childhood village of Sina and had created a huge crater. This event came to be known as the 'Golden Impact'. Catherine sent out a team of miners to go and survey the impact site. They discovered a large rock at its center, and promptly took it back to Patagones. The empress decided that this rock must have come from space, and set about using it. A section was cut off its side, which was taken and forged by expert blacksmiths into the gold-plated Imperial Staff, which Cassius still bears in his assemblies. The remaining piece was taken to the National Museum of Tetermokistan to be studied and learnt from. Redevelopment of the Army After such a long period of not very much fighting, the huge armies of the empire grew restless. Across the world, wars were raging as growing nations fuelled their successes and economies. Rebellions rose throughout Europe, and fell just as quickly. But nothing seemed to be going on within the borders of Tetermokistan. Catherine recognised this time period as the first length of peace time in the nation's history, and celebrates it accordingly. After a long period of not very much fighting, the huge armies of the empire grew restless. Across the world, wars were raging as growing nations fuelled their successes and economies. Rebellions rose throughout Europe, and fell just as quickly. But nothing seemed to be going on within the borders of Tetermokistan. Catherine recognised this time period as the first length of peace time in the nation's history, and celebrates it accordingly. As if to end this purposefully, in 1870 the Ottoman Empire forcibly room the Tetermokistani town of Organesson, which lay right at the border. Quickly, Catherine dispatched a force to retake the town. The two armies were more evenly matched, however, and so it took a six week siege to retake it. The Empress saw this as a sign that the army needed rebuilding, and so put massive funding into this. She increased the military's funding and put out public advertisements to encourage people to join the army. More money was put into industry as well, with the government subsidising manufacturing and the arms industry in the hopes of improving the army's technology. It was divided into legions, each with a thousand men, and squadrons made of a fifty. This helped with tactics in fighting as the troops could be more easily organised. Campaign into Anatolia In 1874, the now aging Catherine displayed the power of the new Tetermokistani army with a campaign into Ottoman lands. She lead 120,000 soldiers east, out from Patagones and across the great plains and hills of the country. They passed Sina and Mount Ararat in April, and were gifted resources and for by the locals there. With this huge force, she marched across the mountains and into the far east of Anatolia. Within a day, they had sieges the historic town of Manzikert, site of the 1071 battle. A huge area around it was also captured, so much that Catherine decided to make it its own region in Tetermokistan with its own government.